Priebus pledges to protect Iowa caucuses

10/25/12 11:10 AM EDT

As questions about 2016 begin to percolate, the RNC chairman says he'll work to ensure that 100,000 or so voters — no, make that caucus-goers — in a single demographically unrepresentative state will continue to wield staggeringly disproportionate influence over the presidential primary process:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says the Iowa GOP caucuses will retain their first-in-the-nation status in 2016, despite a controversy in January over vote counting that led to widespread criticism about how the process was handled.

“You know, I think time heals some things, and I think four years from now we will be reelecting Gov. Romney” as president, Priebus said Wednesday night after addressing the Iowa Republican Party’s Ronald Reagan Dinner at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

“We won’t need to worry so much about all of these sorts of calendar issues, “ Priebus told reporters. “But I will tell you where the RNC is at right now is that we are willing and we are ready to protect Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status.”

Both parties have been in thrall to Iowa (and New Hampshire) for decades and there's no sign that will change, despite the fiasco of January's ballot. The significance of the Ames Straw poll is very much an open question, though, given how the top three finishers in 2011 — Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and Tim Pawlenty — fared on Jan. 3.